Another Chance to Get Burned
by FallingforWerewolves
Summary: Fiske's tired of playing peacekeeper for Sinead and Hamilton's fights, so he assigns that responsibility to the younger Cahills.  But of course, the younger Cahills decide that they're going to find out the real reason behind the constant fighting.
1. New Peacekeepers

**A/N: When this popped into my head I just had to write it. Warning of possible OOCness! I will try to keep them in character as much as possible. And Evan doesn't exist for this one.**

**Disclaimer**

**Me: Everyone gets Ian to do the disclaimer, so I'll leave him alone.**

**Ian: *Goes running off with a victory yell***

**Me: O_o Anyway, let's get Hamilton to do it.**

**Hamilton: Do what?**

**Me: The disclaimer.**

**Hamilton: *shrugs* FallingforWerewolves does not own the 39 Clues, fighting, hair dye or purple potatoes.**

**Me: You're better at this than Ian is.**

**Ian: Hey!**

**Me: *ignores Ian* But there aren't any purple potatoes.**

**Hamilton: You never know...**

* * *

><p>Silence.<p>

Not something you usually would hear at the Cahill mansion, but it hung in the air taunting anyone who had expected noise.

The mansion was now a ticking time bomb. Fiske knew this as soon as the quiet had swept through the house. He put down his cup of tea and stuck his head out into the hallway. There was no one there and the eerie silence continued. Fiske turned to look at the clock that hung on the wall next to the fridge.

"In five," Fiske muttered to himself. "Four, three, two, one..."

"DANIEL CAHILL I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"YOU JUST WRECKED EVERYTHING, HAMILTON!"

"NED, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!"

"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!"

"WHY IS EVERYONE YELLING?"

Fiske sighed. He was starting to get used to this. He went and sat back down at the table and began to calmly sip his tea as he waited for them all to come down and complain to him about the others.

Natalie got there first, rainbow hair and all.

"Look at what Daniel did to my hair!" She screeched.

Ted and Ned came down seconds after.

"Ned was going through my stuff again!" Ted exclaimed.

"Was not!" Ned retorted.

"Was!"

"Was not!"

Madison and Reagan came down next.

"Madison just cut up my leotard!" Reagan whined.

Madison threw her hands up in exasperation. "It was _pink_! What did you expect me to do?"

Jonah came in dragging Dan by the shirt collar. "Dan spilled rainbow dye on my favourite shoes!"

Ian and Amy came in next.

"Well you shouldn't just leave your diary out where anyone can find it!" Ian yelled at her.

"It was locked in my desk!" Amy yelled right back.

But everyone was soon drowned out by the two who had turned arguing loudly into an art.

"YOU COULD'VE WARNED ME NOT TO!" Hamilton bellowed.

"I THOUGHT YOU HAD ENOUGH COMMON SENSE TO NOT DO IT!" Sinead shouted.

"IT WASN'T THAT OBVIOUS!"

"WE WENT OVER IT A MILLION TIMES, HAMILTON! HOW COULD IT NOT BE OBVIOUS?"

Fiske finished his tea before standing up, walking over to some of the cuboards, taking out two frying pans, and banging them together. Everyone quieted down.

"That's better," Fiske said calmly before sighing. "You all really need to learn how to get along."

"We do sometimes," Dan mumbled.

"But not a lot," Fiske finished the statement then sighed again. After a moment of thought, Fiske said "I'm instating a new house rule. No fighting."

"How do you think some of us are going to stick with that?" Hamilton asked, glaring at Sinead.

"Yeah," Sinead agreed, glaring at Hamilton. "How is _Hamilton _going to be able to cooperate with that?"

"You know what, Starling?"

"I know more than you do, Holt!"

"STOP IT YOU TWO!" Fiske barked.

Hamilton and Sinead both crossed their arms and continued to glare at each other.

"I'm surprised I haven't gone insane playing peacekeeper with you two," Fiske said.

"You two fight so much that it's not natural," Dan commented. "And that's coming from me."

"I actually agree with Daniel," Natalie announced begrudgingly, still annoyed with him for the whole hair thing.

"Rephrase time. That's coming from me and Natalie," Dan said.

"Well, if Hamilton wasn't such an idiot," Sinead began.

"That is the most unoriginal insult I have ever heard!" Hamilton interrupted.

"This coming from a Tomas!" Sinead snapped.

"So we're having this fight again?" Hamilton demanded.

"No, you two are not having that fight again!" Fiske announced.

"Fiske, we all know that Hamilton and Sinead are going to fight no matter what you say or do," Amy told Fiske timidly.

Fiske sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I do know that."

If life was a cartoon, Dan swore a lightbulb would've popped up over Fiske's head.

"Well, from now on, the rest of you have to play peacemaker with those two," Fiske said in a satisfied tone.

Silence. And then:

"WHAT?"

"ARE YOU BLODDY INSANE?"

"THIS CAN ONLY END IN TEARS!"

Fiske picked up the frying pans again and banged them together.

"I may be insane, Ian," Fiske commented. "But the blame lands on those two." Fiske gestured to Sinead and Hamilton, who were now seemingly trying to murder each other with the daggers they were shooting from their eyes.

"So to teach us a lesson," Ned began.

"You're going to drive us insane?" Ted finished.

Fiske shook his head. "I won't be driving you insane, but they might." Fiske then sat down at the table and picked up his newspaper.

"Have fun."

* * *

><p><strong>There's Chapter One! I must now apologize to those who are reading my fic "Things I'll Never Say" because I need to take a break from that story to figure out where I'm going with it exactly.<strong>

**Me: See, Hamilton? There weren't any purple potatoes.**

**Hamilton: *shrugs* It was just precautionary.**

**~Maddie**


	2. The Context?

**A/N: So, yeah. This turned into something more dramatic pretty quickly, so that's why I changed the genre. Hope that doesn't turn everyone away. I will put more humour in the story, it's just that this is the way it wanted to be written. I think this is one of those stories that fall into more than 2 genres. So, yeah. I've got to stop doing that.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Sinead's turn.**

**Sinead: Can you not see that I'm busy arguing with Hamilton right now?**

**Me: The sooner you do the disclaimer the sooner you can go back to verbally abusing him.**

**Sinead: *sighs* Fine. FallingforWerewolves owns nothing but the idea. And she doesn't own purple potatoes either.**

**Me: You're done.**

**Sinead: Good. HAMILTON HOLT, DON'T YOU DARE WALK AWAY FROM ME WHILE I'M YELLING AT YOU!**

**Me: Let's leave these two alone, shall we? And what is it with these people and purple potatoes?**

* * *

><p>Up until dinner, the younger generation of Cahills had managed to keep Sinead and Hamilton out of the same room for the whole afternoon. Since Nellie never allowed meals outside of the dining room, everyone was prepared for an explosion.<p>

Which surprisingly didn't come because the two had refused to leave their rooms. So while Hamilton and Sinead were absent from the dinner table, they were the subject of discussion.

"Why do you think they fight so much?" Amy asked.

Ian shrugged. "Branch rivalry?"

"We aren't ripping each others' throats out," both sets of twins announced.

"Maybe it's the whole museum incident," Jonah suggested.

"Once again," Ted started.

"We don't argue with Madison and Reagan all the time," Ned concluded.

"Probably because the museum thing wasn't our idea," Madison blurted out before her twin's hand clamped down on her mouth.

Everyone in the room stared at the Holt twins.

"Who's idea was it then?" Dan asked.

Reagan shot Madison the "you really shouldn't have said anything" glare before answering. "Hamilton's."

"Well, that explains almost everything, doesn't it?" Natalie observed.

Jonah looked confused. "What do you mean 'almost everything'?"

"She seems to have taken it as if she had been betrayed," Nellie explained. "Which, as far as I know, she was."

"Still confused," Dan announced.

"When Hamilton apologized," Amy shot Ian a quick look on the word "apologized" before continuing, "to Sinead, he apologized for his family blowing up the museum. He never once mentioned the fact that it had been his idea."

"How did she even find out about it, though?" Ian asked. They weren't doubting that Sinead knew that the explosion had been Hamilton's idea now.

"She's Sinead," Ned and Ted said in unison.

"Hamilton could've let something slip," Reagan and Maddison suggested.

Fiske sighed. "I'm wondering how any of this is going to help you keep them from fighting. I know that finding the source of the problem is the first step to the solution, but this problem is incredibly twisted."

"How so?" Natalie asked, although she had a fairly good idea.

Fiske sighed. "Hamilton Holt and Sinead Starling have been fighting from the first time I saw them. That was when they were about eight. Even back then there was something more buried in there. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't branch rivalry."

"Do you remember the argument, Fiske?" Amy asked.

Fiske gave her a sad smile. "I may be old, but I still remember some things."

* * *

><p><em>7 years before the clue hunt...<em>

Fiske Cahill was lurking in the shadows of the Cahill family reunion as he usually did. No one could see him, not even the Lucians who were always boasting about how good they were with surveillance.

Fiske was watching the children, who were all wandering around outside. The Kabra girl and Dan seemed to be taunting each other with the nastiest names four year olds could come up with. The Kabra boy seemed to be pestering Amy about whatever book she was reading. Jonah was just getting started on his career at age nine, but had somehow managed to come anyway. Fiske could tell that the Wizard boy did not want to be there though. The Holt twins were climbing trees which should have been to tall for children of four years of age to scale, but they were Holts. The Starling boys were studying the natural wildlife among the grounds.

Fiske's gaze finally landed on the Holt boy and the Starling girl who were, at that moment, soaking wet in the river that twisted around the property. Sinead had apparently caught Hamilton off guard and had managed to push him in the water. Once he had resurfaced, he had dragged her in there with him. From his current position, Fiske could hear them clearly.

"What was that for?" Sinead asked, annoyed.

"For pushing me in," Hamilton told her. "Duh."

"Well you deserved it," Sinead snapped.

"Why did I deserve it, Starling?" Hamilton demanded in a tone way too threatening for a normal eight year old.

Sinead didn't flinch, but replied in the same icy manner.

"You didn't apologize."

Hamilton shrugged. "Why should I? You were in the wrong!"

"And how was I in the wrong for something you said?" Sinead snapped.

"You took it the wrong way."

"How could I possibly take you calling me an idiot the wrong way?"

"You don't understand the context!"

Fiske was quite surprised that a Holt knew what such words meant.

"Fine then," Sinead said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Explain the context to me."

Hamilton just looked at her for a few moments, then averted his gaze as he climbed out of the river and marched up to the mansion soaking wet. Sinead just stood there in the lake for a minute or so before getting out herself. She didn't go up to the estate, but just sat on the grass by the edge of the water.

Sinead Starling hated it when people kept secrets from her.

* * *

><p><em>Back to the present...<em>

"So," Dan was the first to speak. "Hamilton's been keeping secrets from Sinead a while?"

Fiske nodded. "It would seem so."

"You're sure that you heard none of their conversation before that?" Ian inquired in the cool calculated tone that meant he was trying to figure something out. "Anything with hints as to what the context would be?"

Fiske shook his head.

"There's your new mission kids," Nellie announced in a some-what cheerful tone, hoping to lighten the mood. "See if you can get any hints about what said context might be and what other secrets those two might be keeping."

"Why do you think Sinead would be keeping secrets?" Amy asked.

"Do we have to repeat this?" the Starling twins asked of no one in particular. "She's Sinead."

* * *

><p>Sinead couldn't take it anymore! She had to get to a bathroom. She didn't care anymore if she ran into Hamilton or not.<p>

Of course, that's exactly what she did. Literally.

"Watch where you're going, Starling," Hamilton growled.

"Watch where _you're _going, Holt," Sinead hissed.

They just stood there in silence for a moment.

Then Sinead asked "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Hamilton stated.

"Why? Because I wouldn't understand the context?" Sinead snapped before walking past Hamilton angrily.

Hamilton sighed before hitting his head against the wall a few times.

"Hamilton?"

Hamilton looked down the hall to see Amy standing there.

"What was the context?"

He didn't care that she knew about it. He didn't care how she knew about it.

"Amy, you're pretty much my other sister, but I'm not going to tell you."

Amy just nodded. "Understandable."

Hamilton began to make his way back to his room, but before turning the corner he looked back at Amy again.

"And honestly, I haven't really figured out the context," he told her.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope my dramatic change doesn't scare off people, but the story wanted to be written this way, and you guys know how that happens. And that you can't really do anything to change it.<strong>

**Love it? Hate it? A piece of advice: if you hated it, don't read it. Simple as that.**

**BTW, the name of the first chapter is from the song "Start All Over" and the name of this chapter comes from the song "Give Your Heart a Break".**

**3**


	3. BAM

**A/N: This chapter starts out more humourus than the last one. I'm all proud of myself because I finished planning out what I wanted to happen in this story. During school. I'm so glad I didn't get caught. **

**Just to clear some things up: everyone now lives at the mansion (except Alistair and Mr. McIntyre, who will both make an appearance or two later on).**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Since the chapter starts off with Dan, let's make him do the disclaimer.**

**Dan: Do I have to?**

**Me: Yes, you do.**

**Reagan: Just do it, Dan!**

_**Slap!**_

**Dan: *holding his hand to his cheek* Okay! FallingforWerewolves does not own my awesome self or anybody else in this story. Especially not purple potatoes.**

**Me: Thanks Reagan. Dan, why does everyone say I don't own purple potatoes?**

**Reagan: Because you don't.**

* * *

><p>"Whoo!" Dan exclaimed, jumping up and down on the couch in the game room.<p>

Amy stuck her head in. "Did he have sugar?" she asked Reagan, who was sitting on the couch Dan was still bouncing on.

"No, he just beat me at Mario Kart," Reagan explained. Amy rolled her eyes and left.

"Hey, Dork Lord," Reagan said before tackling Dan in order to calm him down.

"Okay," Dan sputtered. "I stopped jumping! Would you please get off of me?"

Reagan complied and nearly threw herself onto the couch. "Honestly, Dan, it's just a game."

Dan suddenly got a serious look on his face before standing up and making his way over to where Reagan was sitting. He then put his hand to her forehead as if checking her temperature.

"What are you doing?" Reagan asked, confused.

"You feeling okay?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah, why?"

"Mario Kart has never been 'just a game' to you." His eyes widened. "Who are you and what have you done with Reagan Holt?"

Reagan rolled her eyes and pushed him, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor.

"I'm just kind of distracted by the whole Hamilton and Sinead drama," Reagan explained as Dan stood up and brushed himself off.

"Ah, the context," Dan announced in a weird accent that Reagan guessed was supposed to be making fun of Ian's.

"What do you think it is?" She asked Dan as he sat down next to her.

Who knows why she expected a serious answer from him.

"There was a group of purple polkadotted aliens standing behind her," Dan suggested with a straight face.

Reagan face-palmed.

Dan noticed this and commented, "It's better than my other theory."

"And what's this other theory?" Reagan asked even though she knew she shouldn't.

"That she was allergic to peanuts and wanted to eat a peanut butter cookie."

Reagan chuckled. "Dan, you're an idiot."

"And proud of it," he said smirking.

They both thought in silence for a moment. If anyone else had been in the room they would have checked to see if either Cahill was conscious. Then Reagan burst out laughing.

"What?" Dan asked, wondering what could make her laugh that much.

"Maybe he's in love with her," Reagan said, still giggling.

Dan held it in for about five seconds. After that he just lost it.

"Hamilton Holt... in love... with Sinead Starling?" Dan managed to choke out between his rather loud laughter. "Reagan whatever-your-middle-name-is Holt, you have a demented mind!"

"And proud of it," she said, repeating his words from earlier.

* * *

><p>Sinead was doing something she knew she shouldn't do. It wouldn't help her get over it. Thinking of it definetly didn't help putting the idea in the back of her head.<p>

Remembering the explosion was a dangerous road, but Sinead had traveled it many times. Ned and Ted hadn't seemed to, but she did. After learning the blame for it landed completely on Hamilton's shoulders, Sinead had seen the horrific nightmare run through her head even more than it had before.

Hamilton had kept way too many secrets from her over the years. First was the whole "context" issue. All she had asked him was why he had been acting so weird around her. It shouldn't have been that hard to answer!

But the whole museum explosion dilema had been the last straw. Just when she had almost forgiven him for what his family had done, she had learned that it had been Hamilton's idea in the first place. It was pretty scary how upset and angry she had been when she had obtained that little piece of information.

Now, back to Sinead remembering the bomb. As she lay on her bed, hands under her head and her eyes staring up at the ceiling, she could hear Ned and Ted's yells for help and of terror. She could even hear her own horrified scream as the walls and ceiling came down. She had been afraid that she had lost Ned and Ted for good when her calls for them had gone unanswered. She could remember the blinding pain that had consumed her; the pain that was nothing compared to her brothers, one of them blind and one recieving headaches so strong he couldn't think. It had all been Hamilton's fault.

Sinead would never forgive him for that. Never.

* * *

><p><strong>I just watched The Woman in Black a few hours ago, so that last line brings back so many disturbing images. Hoped this met your approval! If it didn't... I've got a power drill and I'm not afraid to use it. Well, I had one on Wednesday. I have an interesting Social Studies teacher.<strong>

**The title of this chapter comes from "BAM" by Miranda Cosgrove.**

**:)**


	4. Do You Like Waffles?

**A/N: Hope that there are some of you that are still reading this and enjoying it. BTW, I stole some of my insults from two of my other stories ("Their own little game" and "Grinning Like an Idiot").**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Ian! How are you today?**

**Ian: *sigh* FallingforWerewolves does not the 39 Clues or the characters of purple potatoes.**

**Me: O_o Okay then... WHAT IS IT WITH EVERYONE AND PURPLE POTATOES?**

**Ian: It's called foreshadowing. I thought you were an author. Shouldn't you know this stuff?**

**Me: Whatever. Back to the story.**

* * *

><p>Fiske walked into the dining room the next day to see Ian physically holding Hamilton and Sinead apart, Dan watching the scene along with Madison and Natalie, Ned and Ted fully focusing on a mystery blueprint (or as much as they could focus on something, what with the blindness and the headaches) and Reagan, Amy and Jonah were nowhere in sight.<p>

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" Fiske yelled over the noise.

Everyone froze. Even Sinead and Hamilton, although they were still shooting daggers through their eyes at each other.

"Well," Dan spoke up first, "it all started with a waffle."

* * *

><p><em>Earlier that morning...<em>

Ian had the misfortune of sitting between Hamilton and Sinead. It hadn't been intentional in the slightest. He had just had the worst luck with the fact that Hamilton had chosen to sit to his left, and Sinead had chosen to sit to his right.

There was a plate of waffles in the middle of the table and, as Ian's bad luck would have it, Sinead and Hamilton reached for the top waffle at the same time. There was a tension in the air for almost a full minute. It was still there when Hamilton told Sinead to "go ahead and take it".

Sinead scoffed. "Like I'm going to eat a waffle that _you_ touched," she said, removing her hand quickly from the now contaminated waffle. "You eat it."

Hamilton snorted. "Like I'm going to eat a waffle that _you_ touched," he said, repeating her own words mockingly and lifting his hand from the waffle.

"Oh no," Ian muttered.

"I don't know what makes you so stupid, but it works," Sinead told Hamilton.

"Whatever you say, Sinead _Starbucks_," he replied.

"Please no," Ian pleaded with the ceiling.

"Keep talking. Maybe someday you'll say something intelligent," Sinead said, crossing her arms.

"I'm busy now. Can I ignore you some other time?" Hamilton told her.

"Just this once, can they please not try to kill each other?" pleaded Ian, still looking to the ceiling.

"I'll never forget the first day we met even though I keep trying," Sinead snapped.

"Sorry, but you seem to have mistaken me for someone who cares," Hamilton said, smirking.

"I swear that I won't steal Amy's diary again if these two just stop talking!" Ian continued pleading. Madison, Natalie and Dan were torn between laughing at Ian's desperation or hiding from the explosion waiting to happen.

"Bear breath."

"Dragon head."

"Calling you an idiot would be an insult to the idiots of the world."

"Hasn't stopped you before, now has it?"

"Jerk!"

"Know it all!"

"Please just stop!" Ian shouted, but both the Ekat and the Tomas ignored him.

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"You're not worth my time."

"Then why are you making him such a big part of it?" Ian snapped.

"Shut up, Cobra!" Hamilton and Sinead said at the same time.

Madison and Natalie giggled while Dan snorted. Ian threw his arms up in exasperation.

"I've got a question," Hamilton said, turning back to Sinead.

"They say that there's no such thing as a stupid question, but yours are the exception," she replied snarkily.

"Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home?"

Natalie gasped. "He didn't," she whispered.

"He did," Dan told her under his breath.

Sinead stood up angrily. "You know what, Holt?"

"What, Starling?" Hamilton asked, also standing up.

"This can only end in tears!" Ian announced from his position between the two.

"You are the kind of person who, when one first meets you, one doesn't like you. But when one gets to know you better, one hates you," Sinead snapped.

"This coming from the girl that everyone tried to avoid at Cahill Reunions," Hamilton declared.

Sinead slapped him.

* * *

><p>Fiske turned to look at Sinead and Hamilton in disbelief. "You started fighting because of a <em>waffle<em>?"

They both took a sudden interst in their shoes.

Fiske turned on Dan, Natalie and Madison. "You three just sat there and watched?"

They too took a sudden interest in the floor.

Fiske then turned to Ned and Ted. "What were you two even _doing_?"

Ned shrugged while Ted said "Studying the blueprint that you currently see."

Fiske turned on Ian lastly. "And what was that about stealing Amy's diary?"

"Nothing," Ian said guiltly.

Fiske sighed and rubbed his temple.

"All of you, go upstairs somewhere," he finally said after a minute or so. "And you two," he said to Hamilton and Sinead, "try to stay in different rooms until you both _calm down_."

They all filed out. Ian was the last to leave and while doing so, he turned to Fiske and said:

"I can see now why you are insane."

* * *

><p><strong>There you go! Sorry for the longish wait and for the fact that it isn't as long as the others, but quality over quantity right?<strong>


	5. Walls That I Can't Break Down

**Disclaimer: The 39 Clues does not belong to me.**

**And yes, I always seem to like writing Hamnead with some Amian in the background because it just comes naturally to me. So, ha!**

* * *

><p>Dan was just innocently walking down a hallway when he felt a hand grip his arm and dragged him into the closet.<p>

"Don't make me unleash my epic ninja training," Dan warned his captor.

"Do shut up, Daniel."

"_Natalie_?"

Sure enough, when the flimsy little light above their heads clicked on, Natalie stood there facing him.

"We've got a problem," she told him.

"Hamilton broke another window," Dan said.

"Two problems then," Natalie replied.

"Sinead broke Jonah's lucky comb."

"Three problems."

"Madison and Reagan are fighting over whether or not ballett's a sport."

"_Four_ problems."

"If we both leave this closet at the same time and someone is out there they'll think we were in here making out."

"Okay, Daniel! We've got a lot of problems! Can I please just tell you what the first problem is?"

Dan held his hands up in surrender. "Go ahead."

Natalie huffed. "Me dear brother and your dear sister are getting close again."

Dan chortled. "No they're not!"

Natalie raised an eyebrow and took out her phone. She went through her pictures until she found what she was looking for and shoved the phone in Dan's face. It was a picture of Amy and Ian looking pretty comfortable on one of the couches in the den.

"That's a problem alright," Dan announced.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Really?" she asked sarcastically.

Dan was still staring at her phone when she asked "What are we going to?"

"Stop time and save the toads," he said.

"What?" Natalie screeched.

Dan looked up from the phone. "Oh, you mean what we're going to do about the broken window."

"No."

"Jonah's lucky comb, then?"

"No!"

"Reagan and Madison fighting?'

"No! I meant Ian and Amy! God, you are dense!"

Dan shrugged. "Don't know. And we still have to get to the bottom of the whole Hamilton versus Sinead stuff too."

Natalie sighed in frustration. "And I still need to get my beauty sleep."

Dan snorted.

"What?" Natalie snapped.

"I knew you were going to say that," he told her, still strangely amused. "I know you way too well."

Natalie rolled her eyes. "If that's supposed to be a compliment, I'm not taking it as one. Now, think about what we can do to keep your sister and you-know-what apart."

Dan looked amusedly confused. "Did you just call your brother 'you-know-what'?"

Natalie got a weird look on her face. "I suppose I did. Now, let's figure out how to get out of here without people assuming that we were in here snogging."

"Even if they do think that," Dan told her, "you'll just convince them otherwise with that dart gun of yours."

Natalie raised one of her eyebrows at him again. "You're making it sound like you wouldn't mind it if anyone out there thought that we were 'getting it on', as you Americans say."

Dan got a disgusted look on his face. "No! All I was saying was that-"

Before he could finish what he was going to say, the door opened to reveal Reagan (who was now sporting a black eye). She looked back and forth between the two.

"I'm not even going to ask why you two are in here," she told them.

* * *

><p>Hamilton was squinting at his face in the bathroom mirror and he swore he could still see the handprint from when Sinead slapped him. Hamilton would never admit it, but it actually kind of hurt. It had also been unexpected on his part, but he should've seen it coming.<p>

"That was the first time she hit me," Hamilton muttered to himself. He was suprised that Sinead had restrained herself from slapping him for years. After all, there had been plenty of times that she could've, and probably should've, hit him across he face.

There was that time when they were nine and he called her a brat. That time when she was ten and he was almost ten when he hung her upside down by her feet and wouldn't let her go until she gave him his cookie back. When they were eleven and he picked on her brothers; when they were twelve and he purposefully spilt his Gatorade all over her; when they were thirteen and seriously began fighting; and even when they were fourteen, one year before the clue hunt, when he mentioned "the context" again.

The context. Even Hamilton was puzzled by it. He honestly had no clue what the context was, but he had the feeling that it was something important. His eight year-old self had obviously known what it was. It must have been pushed to the back of his mind over the years. Did that mean he had been _trying_ to forget what it was and actually succeeded in forgetting? Hamilton didn't know.

Should he?

* * *

><p><strong>There you go! Faster update for you! Thank my math teacher. She didn't give us any homework today.<strong>

**Hope you still like the story!**


	6. Food for Thought

**Disclaimer: The 39 Clues does not belong to me.**

* * *

><p>The next morning, everything was relatively quiet. Until Fiske came in of course.<p>

But before that, it wasn't too loud or exciting. Hamilton and Sinead were giving each other the silent treatment like they usually did between fights. Natalie and Dan were arguing over what looked like a blueprint of some kind and, about every few minutes, looking up at their siblings, who were keeping an eye on Hamilton and Sinead to make sure one or both of them didn't spontaeniously combust. Ned and Ted were in a debate with the Holt twins on whether or not pink was a stupid colour (Madison and Ned on the "Pink is Stupid" team against Reagan and Ted on the "Pink is Awesome" team). Jonah was taking a nap of all things.

Fiske entered the room just after Jonah woke up.

"I recieved an important call earlier while I was doing my yoga," Fiske began to say before he was interrupted by Dan.

"I can do yoga!" he announced before dropping to the floor. "The Cobra," he said before falling flat on his face and spreading his limbs everywhere. "The Drunk Cobra," came out muffled because of the fact that his face was pressed against the carpet. He then rolled onto his back and put his hands to his throat. "The Dead Cobra."

"You can stop anytime, Daniel," Ian commented.

Fiske cleared his throat. "As I was saying, I got a call from Mr. McIntyre. The Vespers are on the move."

Amy and Dan immediately stiffened.

"I'm confused," Jonah said. "Evening prayers that those monk dudes sing are on the move? What?"

"Not those Vespers, Jonah," Fiske explained.

"The Vespers are a group that apparently make Isabel look like Mother Teresa," Amy added.

Natalie and Ian shuddered at the thought.

"And we need to know this because...?" Sinead asked in a bored tone.

Hamilton snorted. "The Ekat doesn't want to know something. That's a change."

Sinead rolled her eyes. "As they say, small things amuse small minds."

Hamilton stuck out his tongue at her. She did the same.

"Would you two please stop?" Fiske sighed. "Anyway, the Vespers are a group dedicated to destroying the Cahill family. They're mainly after two things: the serum and Gideon's ring."

"Gideon's ring?" Madison asked disbelievingly. "I thought Gideon was a dude."

Ned rolled his eyes. "Guys wear rings too. Just not pink ones."

Madison smirked at the pink comment while Reagan and Ted just sighed at the hopelessness of their siblings.

"Amy is currently in possesion of the ring," Fiske continued. Amy held up her wrist that held the watch with the ring concealed inside.

"Ingenious," Ian commented admiringly. "Concealing the ring inside the watch."

"Thank you," Amy said smiling at him.

"Would you have said that it was 'ingenious' if _I_ had come up with the idea of putting the ring in the watch?" Dan asked. "Don't think so."

Everyone looked at him strangely.

"You know what you're doing, Daniel?" Natalie asked him.

"What?"

"You're being an idiot." And with that, she whapped him on the back of the head. "Sorry, Fiske. Continue."

"Sure," Fiske said uncertainly. "Anyway, William and some other top Madrigal agents have located a Vesper base a few hours from here and it looks like they're up to no good."

"I'm guessing that we're going to have to go undercover, sneak around and find out what they're planning?"

Everyone turned to look at Hamilton.

He shrugged. "I've seen a lot of movies, okay?"

"And here I thought you only watched sport documentaries," Sinead commented.

"So it turns out that you don't know everything," Hamilton replied.

"Well, it's sweet to know that you thought I knew everything."

"It wasn't meant to be sweet."

"How was it meant?"

"You know the answer to that."

"No, I don't. I don't know everything, remember? Like _the context_."

"When are you going to let that go?"

"Whenever you finally explain it to me!"

"I'm begging you two: PLEASE. BE. QUIET!" Fiske yelled over the two arguing Cahills.

Sinead and Hamilton both glared at Fiske for a minute before sitting the way they had been before: arms crossed and facing away from each other.

"Now, Hamilton was right about the going undercover and sneaking around. Luckily, it's supposed to be a costume 'ball', as they call it, since it takes place on Halloween, which is about two weeks from now."

"So, we have to be ready to go to that party and get as much information on their plans as we can?" Ted asked.

Fiske nodded. "Exactly. I'll tell you more once William and the others get back to me on the main plan, but for now you're free."

"Brunch time!" Nellie exclaimed from the kitchen.

"Free to eat, that is," Jonah corrected Fiske before jumping off the couch and pratically sprinting into the kitchen.

"He's addicted to Nellie's cooking," Amy explained at Fiske's puzzled, yet amused, expression.

"That explains everything."

* * *

><p>"Hey, Jonay," Nellie greeted him as he skidded to a stop at the counter. "Fiske just broke the Vesper knews, huh?" she asked knowingly.<p>

"Can't talk," Jonah replied, pratically shoveling the waffles and sausages into his mouth. "Eating."

"Save some for the others, kiddo," Nellie told him. She called all of the Cahill children that now.

"Hey!" Jonah protested. "I'm almost the same age as you!"

"Tough luck."

Seconds later the others poured in. Well, besides Hamilton and Sinead.

"Where's the dynamite duo?" Nellie asked.

"Sinead locked herself in her bedroom to work on something," Amy said.

"We're fairly sure that the 'something' will involve pain and suffering on Hamilton's part," Natalie added proudly.

"Speaking of Hamilton, he's currently climbing one of the enourmous trees out in the backyard," Ian continued to explain.

"Like he always does when he's stressed and or upset," Dan finished.

"I heard the whole fight about the context," Nellie told them after a few minutes.

"I don't understand why he won't tell her already," Ned commented, before taking a huge bite out of a ham and cheese deluxe sandwich (because Nellie never made a regular ham and cheese sandwich).

"Have you considered the idea that maybe Hamilton doesn't know what the context is?" Nellie asked him.

"I don't think he does," Amy muttered.

Nellie shrugged before turning back to her highly experimental crème bruleé.

"Just some food for thought," she told them.

* * *

><p><strong>And it's done! This chapter is done, not the story. Don't worry. I figured that I might as well add some Nellie awesomeness because I haven't had her in this story a lot and I just love her. And yes, I had to put in Vesper drama, but there are reasons that revolve around "the context" for adding in the Vespers.<strong>

**Loves ya! :)**


	7. Wherefore Art Thou, Hamilton?

**Disclaimer: The 39 Clues does not belong to me.**

* * *

><p>The rough bark of the tree dragged along Hamilton's hands as he continued to climb higher. It was taking him a bit longer to scale this particular tree. He had gotten used to climbing a rather large tree that currently stood a few feet away and had therefore, lost any challenge it had given him. So, he switched trees.<p>

He finally reached the top branch, that was sturdy enough to hold his weight, and pulled himself onto it. He sat with his back against the trunk and closed his eyes.

"Wherefore art thou, Hamilton?"

"Because if I was Ian this branch would be opposite of Amy's room," Hamilton replied.

"Point taken," Sinead said.

It was just Hamilton's luck that this branch was opposite to Sinead's bedroom window. She was sitting at her desk, which faced the open window, working on something. Hamilton wasn't quite sure what it was.

"Is that a torture device that you're going to 'try and see if it works properly' on me again?" he asked.

"When have I ever tested my experimental torture devices on you?" she asked in an innocent tone.

"You want a list? Well, there was that time last month with the truth serum that ended up turning my hair orange for a few hours. Two weeks ago when you 'accidentally' pulled out one of my teeth while you attempted to hang me from the ceiling until I went insane. Need I continue?"

"Don't be such a drama queen," Sinead told him.

"Right, that's Natalie's job."

Sinead gave him a confused look. "You still remember that?"

"How could I not?" Hamilton asked. "That was like, the _only_ civil conversation we ever had. Things like that tend to stick with you."

"True. What did we say Ian was again?"

"The incredibly rich guy who gets the girl in the end even though everyone hates him, right?"

"Pretty sure that was it, too. Dan was the one who turned into a lunatic and ended up killing himself, right?"

Hamilton and Sinead were currently recounting a conversation they had had when they were about eleven and had both seen a horror movie that year. When boredom struck at the Cahill family reunion, the two had cast their cousins and siblings as the usual horror movie archatypes. Like Hamilton said earlier, the only civil conversation they had really had.

"Alistair was the sweet old guy who was the first to be killed and then came back as a zombie," Hamilton told her.

"Fiske was the ghost actually haunting the place," Sinead remembered.

"Jonah was the celebrity that got the whole story noticed."

"Ned and Ted were the ones who didn't believe in the supernatural."

"Reagan and Madison were the only ones brave, or stupid, enough to dig up or bury the bodies."

"Amy was the shy girl who was always clinging to the rich guy whenever the ghosts and monsters got too close."

"Those were the good old days," Hamilton sighed fondly.

"Goof," Sinead told him.

"And proud of it," he replied, smirking. When you live with Ian Kabra, _the smirk_ rubs off on you.

"Hey, Ham!" they heard Jonah call from down below. "We're launching a search party for Dan! The great Lord of Ninjas has gone missing! You might wanna get get down here!"

"What is wrong with that kid?" Hamilton wondered aloud as he began making his way down the tree.

Before he dissapeared from Sinead's sight completely, he said, "That's the second civil conversation we've ever had."

"Thank you," Sinead replied sarcastically, "it's not like I didn't already know."

"Don't shoot the messenger," he told her before continuing his decent.

"That doesn't even make sense!" she called after him. "You're not your own messenger!"

What she got in reply was:

"Maybe I am! Maybe I'm not! You'll never know!"

Sinead rolled her eyes. "He's such an idiot."

* * *

><p>"DAN CAHILL, WHERE ARE YOU?" Amy yelled as she and the others came into the main entrance.<p>

"I am everywhere, and I am nowhere," they all heard Dan's voice say. "I am one with the way of the ninja!"

Amy glanced upwards. "Dan, why are you on the ceiling?"

Sure enough, there was Dan, hung by his feet, which were tied by a rope, which was hooked through a hoop attached to the ceiling that was meant for a hanging plant, and was tied to a light fixture near the top of the staircase.

"Natalie and Madison tied me up here," he replied calmly. "I think the blood is starting to rush to my head, though. Is that bad?"

"Why, Natalie?" Amy asked, knowing that putting Dan in his current predicament had been her idea, not Madison's.

"Well, partly it's revenge for dying my hair rainbow a few days ago," Natalie explained as if it were obvious. "It's also partly because he used my favourite nail polish to write, and I quote, 'Fashion Sucks' on my vanity mirror. He deserved it."

Amy sighed. "Hamilton, can you get Dan down from there?"

"Do I have to? He looks pretty happy up there."

Dan was in fact dissolving into giggles at whatever random thoughts were entering his messed up mind.

"You do and I'll make you extra waffles tomorrow," Nellie said.

"Done," Hamilton replied, already making his way up the stairs.

"We're not going to do well on this mission if we don't cooperate with each other, Nat," Sinead told her.

"Sinead's got a point," Hamilton agreed as he started pulling the rope in, which meant that Dan was moving closer to the stairs.

"Okay, I've got blood pounding in my head, and even I know there's something weird happening," Dan announced.

"It's a miracle!" Jonah exclaimed.

"We didn't think it was even scientifically possible," Ned and Ted said at the same time.

"Calm down everyone," Ian broke in amongst the murmurings of how the others had never thought that they would live to see this day. "Just be grateful that it happened."

"That what happened?" Fiske asked, making his entrance into the main hall just as Dan had his feet on the ground again.

"Sinead and Hamilton agreed on something," Amy told him.

Fiske looked as if he were about to faint.

* * *

><p><strong>That was a quick update. Seriously, not even a week, if I'm remembering the date right. Don't worry, things won't be all peaches and cream from here on in; there's still a lot of drama coming! And for those who don't remember, "wherefore art thou" means "why", not "where".<strong>

**Please review! :)**


	8. We Are the Cahill Team

**Disclaimer: The 39 Clues does not belong to me.**

* * *

><p>The afternoon of the day with the miracle of Sinead and Hamilton agreeing on something found the Cahills under twenty along with Nellie and Fiske in the living room going over key points for the Vesper mission. Most of them were bored out of their minds and on the brink of falling asleep. Ned and Ted were playing a game of tic-tac-toe, but they made it look as if they were comparing notes so Fiske wouldn't get upset. Madison and Reagan were both doodling while Jonah sometimes looked over what they were drawing and wrote notes for improvement. Ian, Amy and Sinead were actually paying attention and Hamilton was counting the tiles on the ceiling having already counted the floorboards. Natalie was writing down a list of what she needed to shop for next week and Dan was sneaking handfulls of Skittles from the huge bag in his hoodie pocket.<p>

"So," Fiske continued to drone on, "we infultrate the Vespers' system using what?"

"Magical mustard seed," Dan suggested.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"The magical mustard seed."

"The what?"

"THE MAGICAL MUSTARD SEED! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WOMAN?"

Natalie sighed before yelling, "NOTHING I ASSURE YOU! YOU ON THE OTHER HAND, THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!"

"Oh great," Ian muttered. "A miniature Sinead and Hamilton."

"Shut up, Cobra," Sinead and Hamilton exclaimed at the same time.

"I was just making an observation," Ian defended himself.

"It was a stupid observation," Hamilton told him.

"And totally pointless," Sinead added.

"Well, of course it had a point," Ian argued.

"What was the point of it then?" Sinead demanded.

"I don't know anymore! You both distracted me!"

"Ian, we all know that I am incredibly handsome, and that Sinead is ridiculously ugly, but the way we look shouldn't distract you," Hamilton announced.

"Oh, so I'm ugly to you?" Sinead snapped.

"What _else_ would you be to me?" Hamilton asked in reply.

"GUYS!" Jonah yelled over the two. "Calm down! We are supposed to be a family. A family united against the forces that oppress us! We can not be that if we're all fighting with each other. We have to talk like a team and act like a team and hear like a team and taste like a team and look like a team and smell like a team and eat like a team, because we are the Cahill team."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Suprisingly, it was Amy who lost it first. She burst into giggles and was soon followed by her brother. after Dan started chuckling, all of the other Cahills began cracking up, including Nellie and Fiske.

Jonah stood there confused for a minute. "What's so funny?"

"Dude," Madison managed to choke out through her laughter. "Your speech was hilarious!"

"But he's got a point," Fiske told everyone after calming himself down. "We have no hope of beating the Vespers if we're all arguing. Now, if Ned and Ted would stop playing tic-tac-toe, yes, I saw you two, and everyone would actually _pay attention_, there's some more information that we need to review."

* * *

><p>"Beautiful mountains."<p>

Hamilton turned to look at Sinead. "Beautiful mountains?"

She shrugged. "It's what your name means. Anyways, I was thinking about what Jonah and Fiske said earlier."

It was now just before five in the evening and Hamilton and Sinead in the hallway leading to the dining room where the others were patiently (and not so patiently in Jonah's case) awaiting the roast beef Nellie had promised them all if they listened to Fiske earlier.

"About the talking, acting, hearing, tasting, looking, smelling and eating like a team because we're 'the Cahill Team' part?" Hamilton asked in an amused tone.

"Yeah, no," Sinead told him. "More like the whole 'we're not going to succeded at this Vesper mission if everyone's arguing' part. That's why I'm suggesting a truce."

"A truce?"

"No more fighting until the mission is over," she explained, holding out her hand.

"You're serious?" he asked.

"No, it's all part of a pratical joke and any second now Dan's going to pop up and spray paint you pink."

"Is he _really_?"

"No! Now, are you agreeing to the truce, or not?"

Hamilton looked at her extended hand as if it were holding a pair of Ian's hot pink dollar sign underwear (Dan had told everyone the story of Buffy, the Ian Kabra Slayer) before slowly taking it in his.

"Truce," Sinead said shaking his hand.

"Truce," Hamilton agreed.

Just then Jonah came running in. "Would you two get in there already? Nellie won't serve the steak I've been craving since two in the afternoon until you two get there and..." he seemed to notice that they still had their hands clapsed. "Am I interuppting something?"

Sinead snatched her hand back and rolled her eyes saying, "Yes, Jonah. You just interuppted the most monumental moment in history. I've discovered how to give Hamilton a relapse of the Black Death by shaking his hand." And with that, she pushed past Jonah into the dining room.

"Did she really? I know it sounds weird, but I wouldn't put it past her." Then Jonah noticed that Hamilton was still looking where Sinead had been just moments ago. "Dude?"

Hamilton shook his head as if coming out of a trance. "What did you say?"

Jonah just shook his head, chuckling. "Come on, Hammer. There's meat in there."

Hamilton perked up considerably and followed Jonah into the dining room.

* * *

><p><strong>Blame "the magical mustard seed" bit on my crazy friend (the one from the spa and the chat room; she does a lot of weird things) and I always wanted to have Jonah do a pep-talk.<strong>

**See y'all next week! I'm attempting to do weekly updates on this story. Usually on Thursdays or Saturdays depending on when I finish writing the chapter.**

**:)**


	9. Author's Note

I am so sorry!

I got writer's block, and then I got hooked on anime, and I've lost interest in the whole 39 Clues series. I never wanted to drop this story; I wanted to finish it to the end, but I can't. I just can't write about something that I'm not interested in anymore. I want to put this story up for adoption, so if any of you are interested, please PM me.

I won't be taking down any of the stories that I have uploaded since I'm hoping at least some of you still want to read them. Just don't expect any new stories or updates for the 39 Clues or Harry Potter stories that I've written.

I know you probably all hate me now, and I'm prepared for the rotten tomatoes you'll probably be throwing my way. Once again, I apologize for losing interest. But some fandoms you stay in for life and some are just passing interests.

Once again, if you want to adopt this story and continue it on your own, PM me.


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